Department authority and rules; administration.

(1) This chapter and all rules adopted and promulgated hereunder shall be administered and enforced by the department.

(2) The department shall adopt rules to implement the provisions of this chapter. Such rules shall provide for:

(a) Criteria by which a demonstrable increase or other indicator of arthropod population levels is determined to constitute a public health or nuisance problem.

(b) Criteria regarding aerial spraying on private lands of pesticides, petroleum products, or other substances for control of adult arthropods which minimize the deposition onto and the potential for substantial adverse effects to environmentally sensitive and biologically highly productive public lands caused by such airborne substances. In the promulgation of such rules, the department shall consider the recommendations of the Florida Coordinating Council on Mosquito Control.

(c) Requirements that all arthropod control pesticides, including adulticides and larvicides, be used only in accordance with the registered label and labeling or be otherwise accepted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency or the department.

(d) Protection of the health, safety, and welfare of arthropod control employees, the general public, and the natural resources of this state in conformity with the provisions of this chapter.

(3) The department is authorized to adopt rules which are more detailed or stringent than, but not otherwise inconsistent with, the label requirements of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

(4) The department shall adopt rules which establish criteria for the licensure or certification of all private and public arthropod control applicators and program directors and require recordkeeping and reporting of applicator activities in furtherance of the goal of integrated arthropod control. No licensure or certification shall be required of private applicators controlling arthropods upon their own individual residential or agricultural property.

(5) In order to carry out the provisions of this chapter, the department’s duly authorized arthropod control operation inspectors may enter upon any licensee’s premises or any location where the licensee keeps or stores records or equipment, at reasonable times, in order to have access for the purpose of inspecting records or any equipment, to inspect lands actually or reported to be exposed to arthropod control pesticides applied by the licensee, to inspect licensee storage or disposal areas, to inspect or investigate complaints against licensees of injury to humans or land resulting from arthropod control pesticides applied by the licensee, or to sample arthropod control pesticides being applied or to be applied by the licensee.

(6) The department shall have the authority to cooperate with federal, state, and local agencies and to enter into such cooperative agreements or commitments as the department may determine necessary to carry out and enforce the provisions of this chapter.

(7) The department shall have the authority to collect, detect, suppress, and control mosquitoes and other arthropods that are determined by the State Health Officer to pose a threat to public health, or determined by the Commissioner of Agriculture to pose a threat to animal health, wherever they may occur on public or private land in this state, and to do all things necessary in the exercise of such authority. Prior to the start of treatments for the control of mosquitoes or other arthropods, the department shall consult with the mosquito control programs in the proposed treatment areas, the Department of Health, the Department of Environmental Protection, and the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission regarding the proposed locations, dates, and methods to be used.